Day 4 - Lynden, WA to Williams Lake BC

Got up early this morning and were on the road just after 7:00AM. We wanted to get to the border which was only 10 miles away. Only one car was in front of us when we got there. Walt was first to cross the border. He made it straight through. Don and I both got pulled aside for more paperwork.

Agent: Where are you going?
John: Alaska
Agent: Citizenship?
John: US
Agent: Carrying any firearms?
John: No
Agent: Ever been arrested?
John: No
Agent: How about DUI?
John: No
Agent: Anything else you'd like to tell me?
John: (Is this a trick question? What does his computer say?) Ummmm, nope!
Agent: Pull over and go inside. (handing me a piece of paper)
John: (drat!)

Just had to get a couple of things stamped and I was out in less than a minute. Don took a couple more minutes and we were cleared.

Walt explained that he told the agent that his parents were born in Canada and that he visits frequently. I guess that makes Walt an almost-Canadian-citizen.

Once we crossed the border we stopped at a bank to get some Canadian money and have some breakfast.

The ride from the border to Hope is what I thought all of British Columbia would look like. (It didn't!) The mountains were heavily wooded, lush, and green. From Hope we turned north the ride up the Fraser river. The river was very full with a fast current. Must still be lots of winter runoff coming down.

Surprising to me was the change of landscape just after Hells Gate. The landscape changed to look like the eastern side of the Sierras. Dry, brown, brush, gravel, desert. It stayed that way until we got to Cache Creek.

(Quick side note on Hells Gate. If you can tell from the picture it is a gorge with lots of water going through it. A sign nearby said that there 200 million gallons of water per minute goes through at peak times. That's two times the rate of Niagara falls.)

From Cache Creek north the landscape changed to what I think we'll expect a lot of. Rolling hills, wooded, but not dense. It feels "northern". The days are getting longer now.

Weather is still being quite good to us. Riding temperatures are in the 60's. It feels good to be all bundled in riding gear with the fresh cool air.

I'm finding that my mind is not as active as it was the first day. I can pass a lot of time not thinking about much but the scenery and counting miles/time.

(P.S. I gave up checking gas mileage and gas costs. With gas prices in Canadian cents per liter and the conversion rate it wasn't worth bothering with. Gas prices have been from 85 to 97 cents so far. You can figure it out if you want.)

My pet paranoia: I'm going to lose something. With all the unpacking and packing every day something is going to get left behind.

End of the day, the laundry is all done, we've all caught up on our email from home. Just a little more tech business, trying to get my GPS recognized and loaded with maps from Walt's computer, and we'll be off to bed.

Hell's Gate sign

Hells Gate

Fraser River in BC

Canada

John's in Canada now

Don made it into Canada too!

Day 3 - Albany, OR to Lynden, WA

Getting out of Oregon went very quickly. Portland was a breeze to get through.

Getting through Tacoma/Seattle and that area was a drag. I thought we had left the crowd behind when we left San Franciso but I guess I was wrong. We probably spent 2 hours in the mess. Once we got through the Seattle area it was smooth going.

Craziest sight was a couple Harley riders with ape hanger handlebars. When I first saw them I couldn't really figure out what I was seeing from a distance. These guys had their hands WAY up in the air. You could do pullups on those handlebars!

Walt took us on a little tour to Stanwood where he spent some time growing up. We took the back way through the old farms in the area to hook back up with I-5. The highway from Stanwood to just outside Bellingham is very beautiful. (Can't stop on the highway to get pictures!) One of the farms had miniture horses for sale. We startled a herd of 10-15 in the pasture and the ran away from road.

We ended up in Lynden. Lynden is a very clean, manicured, Dutch town. Look at the pictures of the KOA campground pictures. It has a pond and putting green lawns. We took a little ride through the downtown area. Lots stuff for the antique and crafty types.

More Lynden KOA

Lynden, Washington KOA

Day 2 - Crescent City, CA to Albany, OR

Pretty slow day today. I think this day is a day of just getting there and learning to slow down mentally. Lots of things were on our checklist yesterday but today is mostly putting miles in.

Got up about 7:00 today and were on the road to breakfast by 8:30. Breakfast was good but a little slow. We didn't get on the road for real until 10:00. Good thing this was not a 400 mile day!

The best part of today's trip was the redwoods just outside of Crescent City. Need to plan a trip back to Jedediah Smith Redwoods. Past the redwoods the road followed the Smith river to Grants Pass. A very easy and pretty road.

Silliest sign: "Congestion". We say a yellow traffic sign with this on it in a town of a few buildings. I guess congestion there means you can see another car while you're driving!

Southern Oregon is very pretty forested hills/mountains. Once we got past that it turns more into valley farmland.

Might have a picture to post for this leg tomorrow of the three of us crossing the border into Oregon. (The camera is not with us here.) We found a bookstore/coffee shop with free internet so they got our business instead of Starbucks across the street.

Major conversations today were all about will Walt sell his GS when he get's back and buy a 2004 or 2006 BMW RT.

Don thinks I should sell my Harley softail and buy a smaller Harley. Maybe a low-rider or one of the new Sportsters. Other speculation on future bikes for me revolve around BMW's possible replacement of the F650GS with a new model.

Don's comments: Need to work in better meals. Don needs 3 complete meals a day. (Walt and I work more on the 2 plus a light something)

Walt's comments: Sore butt!

John's comments: I'm really looking forward to getting to the Canadian border. That's where I think the trip really starts!

Albany, Oregon KOA

Oregon border

Day 1 - Sunnyvale, CA to Crescent City, CA

Well, we started out at 7:03AM just as we had hoped. The worst traffic we'll hit on the trip we probably hit today. Going up 19th Avenue to the Golden Gate bridge. We got through it with no problems - just a bit crowded. Once we got across it felt like we were on our way and leaving the crowd behind.

101 is a very nice ride. I was surprised by Ukiah. It reminds me of the hills behind Stanford but covered with vineyards. Once we hit Willits we started hitting redwoods and lots of gusty cross winds.

We stopped for lunch at Samoa Cookhouse. A historic meal club(?) that was for lumberjacks and is now open to the public. It's and all you can eat place served family style. We had chicken noodle soup, bread, salad, beans, peas, chicken cattchitore, and desert.

The ride from Eureka to Crescent City is very nice. Some parts of the highway are right at the edge of the ocean. No pictures, we'll have to make that a priority from now on.

Camping tonight is at a KOA. Looks like an ewok village from Starwars. We're in a redwood grove. Dinner tonight is just coffee and a sandwich at a coffee shop. (This is where the blog is being updated from. Yeah for free wireless!)

It'll be an early night and off again as soon as we're up. probably early......


Strangest sign: Adopt-a-Highway by Humboldt County Pagan Network (are there druids up here?)
Unexpected signs: Elk crossings (didn't see any, didn't know there were any in California)
Cheesy tourist places. Bigfoot Landing with a redwood status of bigfoot, Curious Hill, Mystery Trees, and such.
Things to come back for: Redwood grooves, seashore.

Biggest mistake: John spilled a cup of tea at the coffee house on Don. Testing his riding gear!